The answer is the Cold tier. This is the correct choice because it provides online, immediately readable storage for data accessed only a few times per year, while offering lower storage costs than the Cool tier. Unlike the Archive tier, Cold tier data does not require a rehydration delay, ensuring instant access for investigators who need to view video files on demand. On the AZ-104 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the trade-off between access latency and cost across the four blob access tiers: Hot, Cool, Cold, and Archive. A common trap is choosing Archive to save the most money, but forgetting that Archive requires a rehydration process that can take hours, violating the “immediate access” requirement. The key distinction is that Cold tier is the lowest-cost online tier—meaning data is always available without delay. For a memory tip, think of “Cold” as the “cooler but still ready” option: it’s colder than Cool in cost, but not frozen like Archive.
AZ-104 Implement and Manage Storage Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of implement and manage storage. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A media archive contains video files that are accessed only a few times per year, but they must remain online and readable immediately whenever an investigator requests them. Which blob access tier should the administrator choose to minimize storage cost?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "minimum / minimize"
Why it matters: Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
Clue: "immediately / without restart"
Why it matters: Time or reboot constraint — the correct answer must take effect right away without requiring a reboot or reload.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Cold
The Cold tier is the correct choice because it provides online, immediately readable storage for data accessed only a few times per year, while offering lower storage costs than the Cool tier. Unlike the Archive tier, Cold tier data does not require a rehydration delay, ensuring instant access for investigators.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Hot
Why it's wrong here
Hot is designed for frequent access and usually costs more to store than colder tiers.
✗
Cool
Why it's wrong here
Cool is suitable for infrequent access, but Cold is generally better for even less frequent reads.
✓
Cold
Why this is correct
Cold is intended for very infrequently accessed data that still needs to stay online and readable immediately.
Clue confirmation
The clue words "minimum / minimize", "immediately / without restart" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Archive
Why it's wrong here
Archive is offline and would require rehydration before the investigators could read the files.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse the Archive tier's 'immediate online access' with its actual requirement for rehydration, leading them to choose Archive for cost savings without considering the access latency constraint.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Blob Storage access tiers (Hot, Cool, Cold, Archive) have different storage and access costs, with Cold tier offering a balance of low storage cost and no rehydration latency. The Cold tier has a 30-day minimum storage duration and a higher early deletion fee than Cool, but for data accessed only a few times per year, the storage savings outweigh these costs. Under the hood, Cold tier data is stored on lower-cost media but remains directly accessible via standard blob read operations without any explicit rehydration step.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-104 question in full detail.
Implement and Manage Storage — This question tests Implement and Manage Storage — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Cold — The Cold tier is the correct choice because it provides online, immediately readable storage for data accessed only a few times per year, while offering lower storage costs than the Cool tier. Unlike the Archive tier, Cold tier data does not require a rehydration delay, ensuring instant access for investigators.
What should I do if I get this AZ-104 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "minimum / minimize", "immediately / without restart". Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. You have a storage account that stores infrequently accessed data that must remain available immediately when requested. You need to minimize storage costs. Which access tier should you use?
medium
A.Premium
B.Hot
✓ C.Cool
D.Archive
Why C: The Cool access tier is designed for data that is infrequently accessed but still requires immediate availability when requested, offering lower storage costs than the Hot tier while maintaining low latency access. Since the data must remain available immediately, the Archive tier is unsuitable due to its multi-hour retrieval latency, and the Premium tier is optimized for high-performance scenarios, not cost minimization.
Variation 2. An archive of legal documents is accessed only a few times each month, but when someone needs a document it must open immediately without a rehydration wait. Which access tier should be used?
easy
A.Hot tier
✓ B.Cool tier
C.Archive tier
D.Geo-redundant storage (GRS)
Why B: The Cool tier is designed for data that is infrequently accessed but must be available immediately when needed, with a lower storage cost than Hot tier but higher access costs. Since the archive is accessed only a few times per month and requires instant retrieval without rehydration delay, Cool tier meets both requirements, whereas Archive tier would impose a rehydration wait of up to 15 hours.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
This AZ-104 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AZ-104 exam.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.